Masks in the Darkness
by Sweet Lu
Summary: A story for Halloween. Kensi has to decide if Deeks is playing a prank or is in serious trouble on Halloween night.


**Masks in the Darkness**

_A Story for Halloween_

...

"You taking the kids Trick-or-Treating, Sam?" Nell asked, a slight giggle to her voice. Everyone knew she loved holidays and Halloween was no exception, the orange and black knit sweater she was wearing bore witness to her family's investment in yet another colorful holiday. She had brought cookies in the shapes of bats and pumpkins and made sure everyone had one of each.

"Yeah, we're going as soon as Callen gets his paperwork done," Sam said, smiling widely. The put-upon look on his partner's face let everyone know he wasn't exactly thrilled with his latest duties as Uncle Callen.

"How long is this gonna take?" he asked as he closed the lid on his laptop.

"A couple of hours," Sam said. "Why, you got other plans?"

A dirty look made Sam laugh and he pushed his partner toward the door.

"Hey, where's Deeks, Kensi?" Nell asked as Eric came into the bullpen looking like one of the zombies from The Walking Dead and scaring the hell out of Kensi, who took her time catching her breath, before punching Eric solidly and painfully on his mutilated-looking arm.

"I think you look marvelous, Mr. Beale," Hetty said with a delighted smile. "I'm sorry I was unable to host a party this year, but you've given me a thrill and I appreciate your enthusiasm. Now, how about you, Ms. Blye. Any plans?"

"Well, Deeks was supposed to be back from his meeting at LAPD a half an hour ago to take me to some party, but, of course, he's late," she replied, clearly annoyed. "I called and sent a text and got no response, so he is definitely in deep trouble."

"Maybe he's trying to scare you," Eric said, adding a ghoulish laugh.

"He better not be," Kensi said threateningly as she tried calling once again only to hear it go to voicemail.

"Well, Eric and I are off to a party," Nell said as she headed toward the door.

"Where's your costume, Nell?" Hetty asked curiously.

"At home and in the kennel," Nell said with a laugh. "I'm going as Little Red Riding Hood and I borrowed a friend's Irish Wolfhound to be the wolf."

Kensi and Hetty looked at each other, wondering how taking a large dog to a Halloween party would work out.

"I hope he's well trained, Miss Jones," Hetty called after them, but all they heard in response was a musical giggle.

"How about you Hetty?" Kensi asked.

"Oh, I'm taking a private jet to San Francisco to see Beach Blanket Babylon with friends," Hetty said as she flipped an orange scarf around her throat.

"Have a great time, Hetty," Kensi said as she sent another text to Deeks, an angrily worded one this time, warning him that if he was trying to scare her, she would kill him.

Then she was alone in the building with only a few lights to ward off the shadows and she shivered slightly as she waited. Finally her phone lit up with an incoming text message and she noticed an attachment.

_"Sorry, but your friend is suffering the consequences of his actions."_

The message sent a chill along her arms and she quickly opened the attachment. It was a very dark photograph of someone hanging by one wrist from a rope tied overhead, his body shrouded in a black cloak and his head covered in a black sack cinched at the neck. A white skeleton mask over the sack was the brightest thing in the photo. She couldn't tell who the person was, but she knew it was a man, her body going cold as she looked at it.

_"Deeks, if you are doing this to scare me, you will pay, big time,"_ Kensi texted back.

_"He is already paying...Happy Halloween."_ The reply came almost instantly and she dropped the phone as her heart began to pound in her ears.

Her mind began to race, but she stopped herself, still wondering if this was some elaborate scheme by her partner to scare the shit out of her this Halloween. She wouldn't put it past him, especially after all those stories he'd been telling over the last couple of days about some of the stunts he'd pulled on different friends. He had even shared how in college he'd had a makeup artist fix him up to look as if he had a machete buried in his skull, with fake blood and everything, then had run around campus scaring everyone and almost getting arrested. If this was one of his dirty tricks, she refused to be sucked into it.

_"Nice try, partner,"_ she texted.

_"You're an unbeliever. Too bad for Marty. You might have been able to save him."_

_"I'm going home now, Deeks,"_ Kensi texted back and then picked up her things and left, getting more pissed by the minute that he would do something like this to her.

As she got in the car she looked down at her phone, but there were no more messages and she smiled at spoiling his prank. She decided to go by his apartment to see if his car was there, but his space was empty. She felt slightly off-kilter as she drove toward home and the image in the photograph lingered in her mind. As she turned onto her street she had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a group of trick-or-treaters dressed in costume as they ran across the dark street, screaming with laughter. When her heart stopped pounding, she cursed Deeks under her breath for making her skittish, before driving on to her place. She parked and grabbed her stuff, fumbling for her keys in the dark. She had left her porch light off to discourage kids from coming, so she was having trouble opening the door. Suddenly her phone buzzed and she leaned against the door before pulling it out. It was a call from Deeks and she snorted out a laugh, trying to decide just what to say that would make him realize how miserably his joke had failed.

"Hah, did you really think you could fool me that easily, Deeks?" she practically shouted into the phone.

A scream echoed back in response and then the line went dead. She froze, trying to catch her breath. Either he was playing this for all it was worth, or this was real. She immediately called back, but the phone simply rang and rang, never going to voice mail. Then she heard it answered.

"Deeks?" she called out tentatively.

The only sound was labored breathing and then a low moan before she heard a voice.

"He claimed someone would come to save him, but I told him he was wrong. I win."

Before she could say anything the line went dead. Could this really be happening, she asked herself. Then she realized she didn't recognize the voice. She knew Deeks could change the tenor of his voice and he did that for different aliases when he was undercover, but this voice was too deep.

It wasn't him.

She began to shake and was startled by a group of kids who ran up shouting, "trick-or-treat" and she yelled at them so loudly that one of them started crying. She didn't even bother to apologize, she just got her door open and rushed inside, her breathing shallow and her heart beating rapidly. She went to the sink and ran cold water over her wrists, trying to calm down, knowing she had wasted precious time by thinking this was a prank. Then she took a deep breath and called Callen.

"What's up Kens, Deeks take you to a boring party?" Callen said, obviously bored himself.

"Callen, I think he's in trouble," she said, unable to keep her voice from breaking. "I thought he was playing a Halloween prank at first, but now I think it's real. He wouldn't take it this far, would he?"

She quickly explained the series of text messages and the photo, then the scream and the man's voice.

"If he is playing a prank, it'll be the last one he ever pulls," Callen said. "But we can't take the chance. Sam and I will meet you at OSPs. I'll call Hetty and Eric."

As a child she had never been afraid on Halloween, and as an adult she could take it or leave it, but tonight she felt pure, icy fear all the way down to her toes. It had been almost an hour since the first message and guilt fought with the anger that hadn't left since the last call. When she got to OSPs, she saw Sam's Challenger and felt a small sense of calm, knowing that she wasn't alone. As she shut the car door, her phone buzzed and she looked down to see another message with attachments and she ran through the darkness, needing to be in the company of the others before looking at the new photographs.

"There's a new message," she shouted as she entered the bullpen. Eric quickly grabbed her phone and accessed all the messages, putting each one up on the board in sequential order. He enlarged the first photo and then paused as they all stared at it together. They all listened intently as Eric replayed the scream and then the heavy breathing and moan, followed by the caller's voice. Sam turned away, anger clearly building as he listened. Then Eric put up the latest text message.

_"Trick-or-treat...so much fun."_

"Open the latest attachments, Eric," Callen said, his voice tense.

The first showed a close up of Deeks' head, now free of the black hood, his face covered by the skeleton mask which was streaked with blood, his hair matted with it. The second image showed his right arm, slashed and dripping blood onto the floor below.

"Eric, where is he?" Callen asked as he watched the tech's fingers flying across the keyboard as he rushed to trace the location of Deeks' phone.

Callen's phone rang again, making them all jump.

"Mr. Callen, I'm flying back. What do you need me to do?" Hetty asked.

"Nell is sending you everything we have from Kensi's phone," he said. "I think we need to find out who he saw at LAPD, what it was about and when he left."

"I'll get back to you," Hetty said and then was gone.

"Eric, what's taking so long?"

Before he could answer, Kensi's phone rang and Eric put it on speaker. What they heard was a man's deep voice talking in the background as Deeks pleaded with him. The overheard conversation was too distant to understand and eerie as it seemed to echo back from the past.

"Time to pay up, Marty boy," the deep voice finally chanted distinctly into the phone with a laugh. "You shot me and now it's my turn, you piece of shit."

The sound of a gun firing startled them all and caused Kensi to shout out a cry that the speaker heard.

"He has to pay. A little boy can't shoot his own father and not expect to pay up, now can he? He was always so annoying, the little shit. Always making jokes, always being a wiseass. I had to punish him, I had to make him shut up. Everything was his own fault. Don't you understand?"

Then the line went dead and they all stood staring at each other and then over at the photographs. Callen flinched when his phone rang. It was Hetty and they filled her in on the latest, quickly replaying the last call.

"Hetty, it sounds like it's his father," Callen said.

"That's impossible, Mr. Callen," Hetty said. "Mr. Deeks' father is dead. He was killed in an auto accident fourteen years ago."

Silence greeted her statement. A quick intake of breath from Nell was the only sound in the room.

"Are you sure, Hetty?" Kensi asked.

"Yes," Nell answered for her.

"Then who the hell is this?" Sam said loudly. "Eric where is this coming from?"

"Somewhere in the rail yards," Eric said softly.

"There's a new text," Kensi whispered, tears evident in her eyes and her trembling voice.

_"Can you feel his fear? The older he got the less he cried when I beat him. It made me mad. It still does."_

"This guy is a real sicko," Callen said softly.

"But how did he get to Deeks?" Sam asked. "And how does he know so much about him?"

"Nell, find out who his cellmate was at Folsom State Prison," Hetty had been listening and she now took charge. "And Eric, find his car. Lieutenant Bates said he didn't call a meeting and was surprised when Deeks showed up at his office."

"Somebody laid a trap for him," Sam said.

"He only had one cellmate," Nell said as she brought the prison records up on screen. "Larry Dutton. He died last year at the prison, in the psych ward."

"Let's go guys," Callen said loudly. "I don't know who's doing this and right now I don't care. We need to get to Deeks, now."

The three agents moved resolutely out of the Mission, the cold night air sharpening their focus, the darkness adding to their feelings of dread. They drove to the rail yard in Long Beach in total silence, the remnants of Halloween decorations mocking them as they drove through the city. They passed a single figure dressed as a ghost, walking along the deserted street and it was haunting, causing Sam to speed up.

"Do you believe in ghosts, G?" Sam asked quietly.

"I believe there is evil in the world, and that's scary enough," he replied.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Kensi asked, she seemed lost and Callen turned to look at her. He reached out his hand to her and she took it, a grateful smile appearing briefly on her face.

"Guys? Deeks' car is at the same building as his cell phone," Eric told them through the comms. Then his voice began to guide them toward a deserted building in the far reaches of the Union Pacific rail yard. The area was sparsely lit and filthy with trash that lay scattered around the rows of old freight cars. Their headlights bounced as they bumped across rusted tracks overgrown with weeds and littered with broken bottles.

"Does this place look familiar to anybody else?" Callen asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"It's the same place Camacho almost killed Deeks when he was undercover as Max Gentry," Sam said softly and then shivered.

"This is seriously creeping me out, Sam," Callen said as they saw Deeks' car parked outside the deserted concrete building. A couple of strips of disintegrating yellow crime tape remained and moved slowly as they lay tangled in the tall weeds by the partially opened door, testament to the violence that had happened here not too long ago.

"Sam, check his car," Callen said quietly as they stepped out into the heavy night air. They waited as Sam checked inside Deeks' car, their weapons drawn and ready as they listened for any sounds coming from the dark building.

"This handwritten message was on the front seat," Sam said as he walked up quietly next to Callen and Kensi. They all read the roughly written words telling Deeks exactly where to come and it was simply signed "Dad".

Sam threw the note into his car as the trio moved stealthily toward the building.

Kensi's phone buzzed and she stopped, going rigid as she read the text message.

_"Did you think I wouldn't see you...trick or treat?"_

They all moved quickly toward the looming building in unison, Sam nodding as Callen swung the door open and followed Sam inside. The large open space was pitch black except for a small flashlight beam that beckoned from the center of the room. They could see a dark cloak and the white skeleton mask hanging in the beam of light. As they approached they could see the cloak was empty. Deeks was not there and Kensi couldn't keep a small cry from escaping in frustration. Then her phone buzzed again with a text.

_"Scared yet? He is. Good trick, dontcha think?"_

"Deeks? We're here, man," Sam yelled into the darkness, his own anger and frustration getting the better of him.

_"He can't hear yoooooouuu."_

The text messages came too quickly, so they knew the person sending them had to be inside and so did Deeks. Callen motioned for them to turn on their flashlights and split up. He took the far right and edged slowly along the wall, stopping to listen every few steps for anything that would lead them to the man taunting them or to the one man they were all desperate to find.

Sam had gone up the flight of metal stairs where Camacho, the arms dealer who had almost killed Max Gentry had kept his office. He remembered Deeks telling them how he had been hung by his wrists from this same landing and beaten almost to death. Sam felt a chill as he moved slowly up, looking down to see the cloak and skeleton mask swinging slowly back and forth in the light from the tormentor's flashlight. He walked as quietly as he could along the metal walkway, hoping to catch any movement down below, but saw and heard nothing.

Kensi had made it almost to the end of the building that led out to the loading dock when her phone buzzed once again. She steeled herself as she looked down at the new text that flashed in the dark, her anger so strong she was afraid she would crush the phone, she was gripping it so hard.

_"Why do you care? He's not worth the effort...but you've earned a treat for playing along."_

A tortured cry echoed through the building and Kensi felt the hairs on her neck rise up as a chill skittered down her spine. She started running toward it and she could hear the others doing the same. The sound had come from the loading dock and all three of them were there within seconds, slowing as they came together, their flashlight beams searching the darkness as they spread out along the concrete platform. A single flashlight beam illuminated a still form at the edge, his wild golden hair dark with blood.

"Deeks!" Sam yelled and rushed to him while Callen moved his gun from side to side, on guard and wary of where the tormentor might be hiding. Kensi couldn't seem to move, long held tears spilling down her cheeks as she waited for Sam to reach him. A sudden wind seemed to spring up from nowhere, whipping trash into a whirlwind around Sam as he knelt over Deeks, his body pulled into a fetal position of protection.

Kensi felt her phone vibrate and with dread she looked down at the latest message.

_"Fear is fun...I taught my boy that a long time ago. He won't forget...not now...not ever...will you?"_

"He's alive!" Sam shouted as he lifted Deeks' limp body in his arms. He began to check for injuries, but other than a slashed wrist and a bloody head, there were no other wounds visible on his body. Kensi knelt down next to him as Callen told Eric to send an ambulance over his comm. As they waited, a long peal of deep laughter echoed through the building behind them and Deeks jerked awake in Sam's arms, his eyes wild as he fought to escape.

"Deeks, it's okay, we've got you. You're safe," Sam said softly as he tried to hold him down with Kensi's help. "Kens, he's been drugged. Look at his eyes."

Deeks finally slowed his struggle, moaning softly and then going limp as he stared blankly up at the sky.

"Who would do this to him, Sam?" Kensi asked as she took his bloody hand in hers.

"It was my dad," he whispered, sounding like a lost little boy.

"Your father died in a car accident, Deeks," Sam told him gently.

"Sam, do you believe in ghosts?" Deeks asked, his voice weak and tinged with exhaustion.

"A ghost couldn't have drugged you," Kensi said softly.

He looked at her and shook his head.

"He knew too many things, Kens," he said. "He always knew what scared me. He still does."

The wail of sirens silenced him and he closed his eyes and Sam felt his body slide into unconsciousness.

Callen led the paramedics out to where Deeks was and waited silently with the others as they strapped him to the gurney. The exhaustion and relief they felt tugged at them, but their anger still simmered.

"You think we'll ever find out who did this G?" Sam asked.

"Maybe it was his dad," he answered. "Maybe he faked his own death."

"Or it really was his ghost," Kensi said as she started to follow the gurney, only to stop before Callen could answer. She turned and held out her phone, showing another text and another attachment.

_"He's mine... See you next year. Trick or treat."_

The attached photo showed a tall, muscular red-haired man laughing as he held the hand of a very young Marty Deeks dressed up as the devil. His face was sad and his eyes huge with fear as he stared out at them from the photograph. All three agents took a step back, looking quickly at each other before walking to catch up with Deeks and the paramedics, afraid to let him out of their sight. It was the scariest Halloween any of them could remember and they weren't looking forward to the next one.

...


End file.
